


Only the moon will know

by RhinoHill



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: #vss365, F/M, Forbidden Love, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-05-19 14:57:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19359292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhinoHill/pseuds/RhinoHill
Summary: Everything about their work forbids this,But if they say nothing, there can be nothing to tell.And no-one but the moon will know.--oOo--





	1. Only the moon

The full moon glows  
on the landscape of your curving spine.  
On hills and valleys folded over bone,  
Wrapped in satin skin.

I trace the rise and fall of you,  
With eyes  
With breath  
With fingers.  
With my heart.

The world forbids this  
But  
Only the silver moon will know.


	2. Secret smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He felt a strange, mesmerising silence in this place of ancient ruins and twin moons. As if the moons had the power to silence more than just waves.
> 
> \--oOo--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For ConnieN, and for the smile your comment on Chapter 1 gave me.
> 
> \--oOo--

It started without warning. Daniel wanted a closer look at the inside of some ancient tomb and she thought she could adapt the MALP as easily on-world as back at base.

The planet was uninhabited and boring as hell until night fell and the twin moons rose to dance over the silent sea.

She wanted to figure out if they cancelled each other's tidal effects out to make the sea as smooth as a mirror, or if something else was causing it.

Daniel wanted to stay.

She wanted to stay.

He felt a strange, mesmerising silence in this place of ancient ruins and twin moons. As if the moons had the power to silence more than just waves.

 

So, within a few hours, he'd left perimeter patrol to Teal'c and appointed himself her assistant mechanic.

Whether she wanted him there or not.

Not that she seemed to mind him handing her the odd tool in return for being in her company. And from time to time, he was genuinely useful. Like now, when she needed an extra grip on a nut above the telescopic arm while she loosened it below.

Her body hummed with quiet contentment as she worked. Muscles slipped in and out of focus under her skin as she shifted under the machine between them. He leaned forward, reaxing his chest along the length of the arm, and let his thoughts drift free in the peaceful afternoon air.

 

Her hand wrapped around the MALP arm's shaft as he felt the nut in his grip loosen and give way. With a triumphant smile, she swung herself around the arm and up. Directly under him.

A slender telescoping rod of metal lay coolly between them, the only separation between his eyes and hers. 

Neither of them blinked.

Neither of them looked away.

Her lips parted.

 

"How're you getting on there, Sam?" Daniel's voice cheered from the doorway.

Jack's eyes shut with a grimace. Whe he opened them, she was still there. Blue eyes silently watching him.

The corners of her mouth twitched into a secret smile before she pulled herself back under and around the arm, and got up to talk to Daniel.

 

 


	3. Twin moons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's sitting at the water's edge, knees pulled up to her chest. As his footsteps scuff the sand, she turns her head, finds him approaching, and turns back.  
> As if knowing he is there is enough.
> 
> He stands behind her, and for a blinding moment, fear flushes ice around his heart. She's on his team, in his protection, an officer in his command. Everything about their jobs forbids this. His cold heart hammers for escape.
> 
> \--oOo--

Twin moons rise over silky silent water. Daniel retreats to his tent to study his notes, Teal'c retreats into Kelno'reem.

The fire's cnattering is the only sound in the evening air. In the flickering light of the flames, her eyes find his again. Peaceful. Honest. Blue.  
She smiles and pushes up to standing.  
Slowly, she turns and walks over the ridge and down to the shore, out of sight.

He secures the perimeter, checking the alarms, and then there is nothing else to do. His feet pull him down the hill, towards her and the moons reflected on the water.

She's sitting at the water's edge, knees pulled up to her chest. As his footsteps scuff the sand, she turns her head, finds him approaching, and turns back.  
As if knowing he is there is enough.

He stands behind her, and for a blinding moment, fear flushes ice around his heart. She's on his team, in his protection, an officer in his command. Everything about their jobs forbids this. His cold heart hammers for escape.

But then her head drops forward, and twin moons caress the rise and fall of her spine with their light. And his heart slows to match the hypnotic swell of her back as she breathes the gentle ocean air.  
He lowers himself onto the sand behind her, soft and warm from the setting sun. His legs draw up to echo the shape of her, sheltering her between them. The metal tang of seaweed lingers on his tongue.

Her body shifts closer to his warmth, only a breath between them in the silent night. Her hair falls softly away from her neck and he breathes in the lemon vanilla closeness of her skin. His fingertips trace the curve of her neck.

With a sigh that feels like home, she leans back against his chest. Her hands curl, warm and steady, around his ankles.  
And the moons dance on the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cnattering isn't a word, is it? But it should be. ;)


	4. The bodyguard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He can't stop drinking her in. Blonde over blue. Knowing gaze over a shy, forgiving smile. He tucks a waving strand of hair behind her ear and laughs when it escapes again the second he lets it go.
> 
> \--oOo--

By noon the next day, she's started setting up the telescope for the night's watch of the moons. It seems assumed that he'll be helping her. She paces out the flat spots on the beach, humming to herself. He smiles as he carries her equipment to the spot she finally selects, sheltered by a steep dune, scrimmed by fan-shaped palms. In the shimmer of the afternoon, he hands her tools and steadies the barrel while she screws it into place. Her fingers linger against his as she tightens the final bolt. She eases up to sitting. Then, with a soft sigh of contentment, holding his hand to steady her descent, she lies back on the sun-drenched beach. Her hand - her telescope hand, pulls his arm down with her, until he finds himself lying sideways on soft sand, propped up on an elbow, his arm across her chest, all to avoid losing her fingers. 

She smiles. A slow, burning smile that turns her eyes to sapphire. The fingers of her telescope hand weave closer into his. 

He can't stop drinking her in. Blonde over blue. Knowing gaze over a shy, forgiving smile. He tucks a waving strand of hair behind her ear and laughs when it escapes again the second he lets it go.

 

From behind the sand-dune, footsteps approach. With a grimace, she closes her eyes, and when she opens them, he is grinning at her as if she were the sunrise. With one final attempt, which even he knows will be futile, he tucks the strand of silk behind her ear and backs away.

By the time Daniel crests the dune to ask which ration pack they want for supper, they're dusting soft sand off their BDUs, the telescope a bodyguard between them.

 


	5. Eclipse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She sat up slowly, pulling her legs up protectively in front of her.  
> His hand on her back left an outline of loneliness. She didn’t realise how much like home he’d felt until his touch was gone.
> 
> He scooted closer, until the tip of his boot rested against the tip of hers. A touch as fragile as the hourglass kiss of the moons. With a gentle smile, he handed her her coffee.
> 
> \--oOo--

Towards midnight, the water started rippling. Both of them shifted up in the sand to see it better. She switched off the head-torch which had been illuminating her notebook as she captured the shifting paths of the moons, to better see their light rippling on restless water.

Their legs were drawn up in the sand, echoing each other. Her right leg pressed along the length of his left. Peace folded soft feathered wings around them. She tucked her pencil inside her notebook and lay it on the sand. With a tired sweep through her blonde hair, she lifted the head torch off. Jack frowned. His left hand found the muscles cording along her shoulder and circled gentle pressure into them.

A groaned sigh escaped her, shooting a thrill up his spine. Without moving his hand, he got up and sat down carefully behind her, cradling her back against his chest, placing his bent legs around her own so that his body took on her shape and held her up.

She pushed back against him as his fingers resumed their slow circles on her shoulders.

The ripples on the water swelled into miniature waves.

The pressure of his hands grew as she melted further into him, sighing as he found more knots of tightness to ease. His thumbs travelled the outline of her spine under the skin of her neck and found the tender nodes of tension at the base of her skull. With a shudder, her head fell forward under his touch. He nudged his legs closer together, shepherding her own in until her forehead could rest on her knees. With a smile, he feathered the balls of his thumbs along the graceful peaks and valleys of her neck and laced his fingers through her hair, tracing the shape of her skull, easing tight skin loose, erasing corded muscles with his fingertips.

In a heartbeat, the sea fell silent. Her hands tightened around his ankles. She sat up against him, alert.

The dark water was a mirror. The light on it was tinted gold.

Jack waited for her body to draw back into itself, away from his protection, then bounced up to standing. Guarding her back as she stood up. Scanning the horizon and the sky.

They saw it at the same time. The parallel moons were crossing in the sky. One white-silver disk touched the other and their light, in combination, cast a golden halo. Light eclipsing light. The whole world hushed, as if to honour the moment of their touch.

The two moons slipped silently out of union, forming an oval, then twin bodies, and finally, an hourglass straining not to break. The second they tore their light apart, waves crashed against the shore in thunderous applause. The smile of wonder on her face caught his breath. Eyes wide in thrilled amazement, she turned a slow circle, taking in the waving trees, the frothing water, the silent telescope which captured none of it. And then, him. Under the light of newly twinned moons, she wrapped her arms softly around his neck, and kissed him.

—oOo—

“Morning, campers! Don’t shoot me, I bring coffee.” 

The smell of dark-roast goodness blew a soft wind through her sleeping brain.  
With a sharp intake of breath, her eyes snapped awake. Her head rested on his chest, one arm under his back in the soft sand, the other under his shirt, feeling his steady heartbeat under her palm. Their legs were intertwined. His one hand cradled her head, the other was tucked under the back of her shirt. His touch on her bare skin chased heat through her body, echoing the heat in her face. As she tried to pull away, Jack’s arms tightened protectively around her.

“Relax.” Daniel’s voice held laughter. And compassion. “It’s about time.”

With a small shake of his head, he strode back over the horizon, away from them and the silent sea. “Let me know if you need help packing up here - we’re due back at the stargate in thirty,” he called over his shoulder as he disappeared.

She sat up slowly, pulling her legs up protectively in front of her.  
His hand on her back left an outline of loneliness. She didn’t realise how much like home he’d felt until his touch was gone.

He scooted closer, until the tip of his boot rested against the tip of hers. A touch as fragile as the hourglass kiss of the moons. With a gentle smile, he handed her her coffee.


	6. Loud - Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was leaning into the telescope, a silhouette against the moon. Her heart thudded in her chest. She ached to hold him again as she did under twin moons the night before. But here, away from the silent beach and the peace of foreign water, her need for him stormed heat through her body that she didn’t know how to control. Stepping through the window could sweep her away.
> 
> He turned. And rose. Black against the moonlit sky, he opened his arms.
> 
> \--oOo--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little love letter of thanks to everyone who commented and validated my experiment - I aimed to put across a feeling of peace without using any dialogue, really tough for me!
> 
> In this last chapter, things ain't quite so peaceful ;-)  
> But your interactions made me SO happy - I hope Sam and Jack back on earth make you happy too
> 
> xo
> 
> \--oOo--

The second they stepped back through the gate, sound hit them. Earth was loud. Boots running, people barking orders and shouting replies, the gush of air conditioning, the click of sensors tabulating their existence.

Too loud.

 

She made it through the debriefing, her fascination with the moons’ effect on the tides dampening the nagging sense of loss that grew around her in the busy room. She needed air. If she couldn’t have his touch, at least she needed the wind on her skin. As soon as she could, she grabbed her micro pliers from her toolbox and headed home, driving fast with the windows down. Letting the rush of the wind deafen her and bring her back to stillness.

 

—oOo—

  
As soon as the babbling stopped, he went to find her. But her lab already carried the sad emptiness of evening. Lights turned off. His hands balled in his pockets, itching with the need to touch her skin. He slammed the door behind him more loudly than he needed to, wishing the echoing thud would bring him silence. All it added was noise.

  
With a grunt, he abandoned the day and went home to find respite in the night sky.

  
—oOo—

  
She hesitated as she walked up to his front door, biting her bottom lip. She pulled the chain with her dog tags free from her shirt and touched the slender, disk-shaped ampoule hanging next to the tags bearing her name. Inside, sand from their silent beach shifted peacefully. She didn’t know if he needed peace, but she did. With a nervous sigh, she lifted the hand that cradled a twin ampoule to knock.

  
Under the pressure of her fist, the door swung open and a scrap of paper drifted to the floor.

_On the roof_  
_With the telescope_

  
She smiled. He needed peace too. Tucking the scrap of paper into her jeans pocket, she quietly closed the door behind her and climbed the stairs to his bedroom and the windows that opened onto the roof.

  
He was leaning into the telescope, a silhouette against the full-moon sky. Her heart thudded in her chest. She ached to hold him again as she did under twin moons the night before. But here, away from the silent beach and the peace of foreign water, her need for him stormed heat through her body that she didn’t know how to control. Stepping through the window could sweep her away.

Her teeth clamped down harder on her lip.

  
He turned. And rose. Black against the moonlit sky, he opened his arms.

  
She almost stumbled in her haste to reach him. Her arms wrapped tightly around his body. Her face pressed to his chest. He folded one arm around her back. The other slowly stroked her hair. Breath by breath, she sank back into quietness. His fingers drifted downward, tugged by memory, searching for the soft rise and fall of skin over her spine.

  
“Gn-aaAh!” His touch on her skin tore a gasp out of her and tightened her against him with desire. He faltered, but she pressed in close, desperate not to lose his touch. Waves of heat crashed through her carefully built control. She raked her hands along the taut muscles of his back and down his arms, thrilling at the shudder running through him, the low moan he gave against her hair. This was not their calm embrace under a peaceful twin-mooned sky. But this was all she needed. She shifted her legs closer to him and leaned back to run her fingertips along the edges of his jaw. His breath came in sharp stutters. His hands feathered lower as her lips pressed on to his. They slipped under her shirt and traced the contours of her waist, the furrows of her ribs, the soft hollow of her belly.

  
“Sam.” He breathed against her mouth. Speaking to her felt out of place. As if they had moved beyond words. But he teetered at the edge of his control and he needed to be sure.

  
She leaned back. Blue eyes looked steadily into his. No barriers. No pretense. Slowly, she reached her arms down to her waist and lifted her shirt over her head. In the moonlight, a pale, round disk gleamed on the chain that held her dog tags, cupped between her breasts. With one hand, she tugged it free and flung it to the floor.

Then she crushed herself against him.

 

—oOo—

  
In the gentle light that filtered through his window, he traced the curves of his lover. She drifted in and out of sleep, waking to smile and catch his fingers with her own as they wandered, mapping her softness and her angles.

  
The peace he felt in that moment was deeper than any he had ever known. His fingertips touched the hollow between her breasts and paused to pick up a memory.

“You were wearing something on your chain tonight.”

  
“Oh,” she shifted, nuzzling her face into his chest. “It’s not important.”

  
He laced his fingers through hers. “You were wearing it. That makes it important.”

  
She smiled up at him, unable to believe how far one night had brought her. “It’s silly, really. I- it’s some sand. From our beach.” She looked back at his chest, shy at the admission. “I thought keeping it close to me would help me feel as peaceful as I did on that planet. When I’m not with you.” She closes her eyes and breathed him in, vulnerable under the weight of her confession.

She never wanted to be anywhere but in his arms.

  
His lips brushed softly against her ear as he held her closer. “Well, you’d better make me one, too. Because I don’t know how I’m going to get through a day at work without kissing you.”

Her soft laughter filled his heart. His eyes drifted closed.

  
“Just one thing, Carter."

  
Her eyes snapped open, wary.

  
“When you’re here, that little disk of self control stays at the front door.”

  
—oOo—

  
She reaches over and picks up his empty plate. When he moves to help her, she pushes him back down with a loving smile.

“Sit. Relax. Watch the game. You cleared up every night last week while I proofread that damn paper. It’s my turn. Another beer?”

  
He groans and pulls her in for a kiss. “Thank you.”

  
“Don’t thank me now,” she shoots over her shoulder with a saucy wink as she walks to the kitchen, “pay me later.”

  
At the front door, two pale disks filled with sand glow gently in the moonlight.

 

_THE END_

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter one was written as a tweet-length poem for the #vss365 prompt #silver.
> 
> Chapter two is growing roots and branches in my mind. It's experimental (more experimental than Chapter one or my usual work), and I would love to hear your thoughts on whether it flies, or crashes and burns.
> 
> I can't guarantee when it will land, but if you're interested in seeing it and helping me by telling me what you think, please pop in a bookmark.
> 
> I will be forever grateful.  
> Thank you, AO3 unicorns!


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